“After eight years going after child pornography collectors and producers, Detective Ian Polhemus said he has seen a sharp increase in cases.
Polhemus believes Washington now has more child pornography offenders per-capita than any other state in the union.
He blames a tech-savvy community and good internet connections.
But he said the lack of enforcement also makes it easy for offenders to get away with the crime.
“I don’t think we get to 2 percent,” said Polhemus.
He’s one of six detectives working on the state’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
In January investigators identified more than 2800 potential cases across the state, but they’ve only been able to investigate dozens of those.
“We’re asking for help,” said Seattle Police Captain Mike Edwards who said the task force does not have enough resources to go after as many offenders as they’d like.
Edwards said without more funding and investigators, they can only pursue the most prolific, vile offenders.
He’s hoping lawmakers will support a bill sponsored by Rep. David Sawyer, D-Pierce County, which would more than double the number of investigators on the task force.”
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